This week our discipleship group is keeping a "Gratitude Journal."  The plan is to come up with ten (10!) items to be grateful for each day.  And there can be no repeats.  It just so happens that our study of Practicing the Way of Jesus has this as one of the options for practice this week.  It has nothing to do with it being Thanksgiving week.  Although, perhaps, God sees it this way.

Each day I'm going to have a little theme going on, so, without further ado, here are ten religious things I'm grateful for today:

1. The salvation offered by Jesus Christ (I figured I'd start big).
2. The great stories of the Old Testament.
3. The parable of The Prodigal Son, which has resonated with me for years.
4. The work of the church around the world.
5. Those moments when I can see the Holy Spirit moving in the lives of those I have the privilege to pastor.
6. A call to ministry.
7. Laughter in worship.
8. My orthodox prayer rope, which has, in seasons of my life, helped me with prayer.
9. Peterson's The Message paraphrase of the Bible.  It may not be the best translation for study, but I often think he captures what's really going on with the text.
10. My "dark night of the soul" experience 18 years ago.